US Open Cup Final Preview

For two MLS clubs, a trophy and actual bliss is in sight for once. Both New England and Dallas actually took the US Open Cup serious this season unlike the rest of the MLS clubs that struggled to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament. If you ask me this cup is still important, even with so few taking it serious anymore.

Both Dallas and New England are trying to exercise some demons of their own with this game tonight. New England has never won a big time game in Pizza Hut Park and its been 10 years now since Dallas won a trophy of any kind.

So what will give in this one? New England’s so-called hot streak in the league against Dallas’s late season funk? The lack of Shalrie Joesph for New England? The confusion that is Denilson for Dallas? Will home field advantage mean anything? Lots of questions really in this one.

Honestly, the biggest factor for me isn’t home field or Denilson, it is how New England plays without Joesph. If they find a way to fill the whole in the middle that he leaves then the Revs will be fine, if now Dallas could take this game and save their season.

This one will be close, in fact I am already going to bet it will go to a shootout. Most of Dallas’s Open Cup games have gone at least to extra time, okay, actually all of them have.

In the end I think Dallas can exercise more demons than New England. The Revs still have a good bit of hope in the playoffs while Dallas is struggling to find themselves at the wrong time of the season. A win in a Cup like this will help them do that again. Not to mention I think Dallas will use this game to wake up for once.